Olympiacos held off Caja Laboral 84-82

Olympiacos survived a valiant effort to hold on for an 84-82 victory over Caja Laboral to remain alive in Group A of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. Vassilis Spanoulis poured in 21 points and had 5 assists to lead Olympiacos, which improved to 4-4 in the very balanced group. Kostas Papanikolaou added 12 points off the bench, while Georgios Printezis and Kyle Hines each scored 11 points as Olympiacos remained perfect at home this season. Mirza Teletovic poured in a career-high 32 points for Caja Laboral, which slipped to 4-4. Fernando San Emeterio scored 14 points and Pablo Prigioni collected 8 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals in the loss.

Spanoulis opened the game with a driving layup for Olympiacos with Pau Ribas coming down at the other end for a triple. Pero Antic nailed a three and converted a tip-in for a 7-5 Olympiacos lead before another Spanoulis layup made it 9-7. Joey Dorsey’s layup started a 3-15 Caja Laboral run, which featured two three-balls by Teletovic and one triple by Brad Oleson with Prigioni’s break-away layup making it a 12-22 game. Lazaros Papadopoulos’s layup stopped the run before Teletovic hit an inside layup to reestablish a 17-26 advantage. Spanoulis finished the scoring in the first quarter with 2 free throws as Caja Laboral led 19-26.

Kalin Lucas opened the second quarter with a three pointer, but Teletovic continued his hot game with another long ball of his own for a 22-29 lead. Printezis then hit a layup and a three-ball and Spanoulis buried a trey as well in a 9-2 Olympiacos run to knot the game at 31-31 for a Caja Laboral timeout. Papanikolaou converted a three-point play and Hines hit a driving layup as the surge was 14-2 for a 36-31 advantage. San Emeterio finally scored his first points to stop the run and Thomas Huertel knocked down a jumper to pull within 36-35. Martynas Gecevicius however re-established a four-point lead twice with a three-pointer and two foul shots for a 41-37 cushion. And Dimitrios Katsivelis’s tough basket in the lane made it 43-37. Ribas and Teletovic both made two foul shots to trim the margin to 43-41 but Michalis Pelekanos nailed a three-pointer from the right wing just before the buzzer to give Olympiacos a 46-41 advantage at halftime.

A Ribas jumper and Dorsey inside basket cut the margin to 46-45 with Katsivelis nailing a three-pointer to push the Olympiacos lead to 49-45. Papanikolaou, Papadopoulos and Spanoulis all scored to retain a five-point lead, the last at 55-50. Then Teletovic took over hitting a three-pointer and a runner in the lane to even the game at 55-55. Spanoulis answered with a three-ball but Teletovic nailed another trey and his inside jumper knotted the game again at 60-60. Prigioni’s steal and break-away layup made it 62-62 before Hines made an inside basket and a free throw for the 65-62 score after three quarters.

Papanikolaou opened the fourth with a tip-in and then watched Nemanja Bjelica hit a jumper from the left corner for a 67-64 score. Both teams struggled to convert offensively until Spanoulis twice fed Papanikolaou for layups and a 71-66 Olympiacos advantage. Teletovic would not let Olympiacos pull away with two baskets and an assist to Bjelica to cut the deficit to 73-72. Printezis made a fine layup and then Hines hit an inside lay-in before Spanoulis’s free throw made it 78-73. Printezis and Hines both hit driving layups to extend the gap to 82-75. And it was still seven points with two free throws by Spanoulis with 12.2 seconds left to make it 84-77. But San Emeterio hit a layup then stole the inbounds

Head Coaches

IVKOVIC, DUSAN

Olympiacos Piraeus

“We deserved to win and I think that the result is fair. After we allowed Caja Laboral to score 26 points in the first period, we improved our defense and played much better. We keep trying to do our job, I hope to advance to the Top 16 and there we will play much better basketball. Tonight we had 60% on two-point shooting, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to save the 7-point lead. I didn’t call a time out, because I didn’t want to offend the opposing coach and I thought that with Spanoulis on the court, we should move the ball well. As per Papanikolaou, he played a very good game and he did what exactly it was needed in the defense against San Emeterio.”

IVANOVIC, DUSKO

Caja Laboral

“It was a game that we could have won, but it didn’t happen. We played the defense we had prepared, but the game was decided in the details. The group is very balanced and I think that all six teams will fight until the end to make it to the next round. There is a lot of interesting competition here.”

Players

SPANOULIS, VASSILIS

Olympiacos Piraeus

"We were 7 points ahead with 12 seconds to go, but the lack of experience didn’t allow us to hold the difference. But the guys will learn from those mistakes and get better in the future. Caja Laboral is an unpredictable team, we knew that, and we were prepared to play that kind of basketball. They can be 10 points down, but (Mirza) Teletovic is able to make crazy three- pointers, as happened tonight. We didn’t start well, but as the game went by we controlled the rhythm of the match and this is important. Now we'll work to win the next two games and advance to the next round. As to my performance, I'm trying to do what the team needs. My target is not only to score, but to find the open man for good shot selection. We create some triangles and try to cooperate effectively on offense.”

PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS

Olympiacos Piraeus

"We didn't start well, but we played much better after the first quarter and finally won. We keep the victory and we look forward to the next two games. If will beat Cantu and Nancy, we will make it to the Top 16 and this is our target. We made a mistake in the last defense and it cost us, but it is not fair to kill a player due tο a mistake. The whole team makes mistakes, not a single player."

HINES, KYLE

Olympiacos Piraeus

“It was a very important game for us, a must-win situation. We beat them and this is what we keep from that game. Teletovic is a great offensive player, he makes big shots and swe tried to stop him and not allow him to find the path to the basket. Now he has no support from NBA teammates and he has to do more things for his team. At the end, it was a lack of concentration from our side to permit Caja Laboral cut the margin. It is a good lesson for us, to keep playing and trying hard for 40 minutes. Group A is very complicated and we need every single point.”